Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/173

Rh 157 grampuses, and all sucn large fishes ; all ships and goods of the enemy coming into any creek, road, or port, by stress of weather, mistake, or ignorance of the war; all ships seized at sea, salvage, &c., together with his shares of prizes; which shares were afterwards called tenths, in imitation probably of the French, who gave their admiral, for supporting the dignity of his office, son droit de dixieme. All prizes are now wholly given up by the crown to the captors, and such share of the droits as from circumstances may be thought proper The lord high admiral also claimed and enjoyed as his due the cast ships; and the subordinate officers of the navy, as their perquisites, all other decayed and unserviceable stores. Though by Act of 2 William and Mary, stat. 2, c. 2 (extended by the 1 Geo. IV. c. 90, and 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 65), the lords commissioners of the admiralty are vested with all and singular authorities, jurisdictions, and powers which have been and are vested, settled, and placed in the lord high admiral of England for the time being, to all intents and purposes as if the said commis sioners were lord high admiral of England, yet there is this remarkable difference in the two patents by which they are constituted, that the patent of the lord high admiral mentions very little of the military part of his office, but chiefly details his judicial duties as a magistrate; whilst, on the contrary, the patent to the lords commis sioners of the admiralty is very particular in directing them to govern the affairs of the navy, and is almost wholly silent as to their judicial powers. These powers, as set forth in the patent to the Earl of Pembroke in 1701, are, the power to act by deputy; to take cognisance of all causes, civil and maritime, within his juris diction ; to arrest goods and persons ; to preserve public streams, ports, rivers, fresh waters, and creeks whatsoever within his jurisdiction, as well for the preservation of the ships as of the fishes; to reform too strait nets and unlawful engines, and punish offenders; to arrest ships, mariners, pilots, masters, gunners, bombardiers, and any other persons whatsoever able and fit for the service of the ships, as often as occasion shall require, and wheresoever they shall be met with; to appoint vice-admirals, judges, and other officers, durante beneplacito ; to remove, suspend, or expel them, and put others in their places, as he shall see occasion; to take cognisance of civil and maritime laws, and of death, murder, and mayhem. It was by no means necessary that the lord high admiral should be a professional man. Henry VIII. made his natural son, the Duke of Richmond, lord high admiral of England when he was but six years old. When the high admiral, however, went to sea in person, he had usually a commission under the great seal appointing him admiral and captain-general of the fleet, sometimes with powers to confer knighthood, and generally to punish with life and limb. Such a commission was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Edward Howard, who executed indenture with the king to furnish 3000 men, 18 captains, 1750 soldiers, 1232 mariners and gunners; his own pay to be 10s. and that of a captain Is. 6d. a-day. The rest had 5s. per mensem as wages, and 5s. for victuals each man, together with certain dead shares. It appears, from Mr Pepys Naval Collections, that the lord high admiral did anciently wear, on solemn occasions, a gold whistle, set with precious stones, hanging at the end of a gold chain. The salary of the first lord commissioner is 4500 a-year, and of each of the naval lords 1500, in addition to the half-pay of their rank. The civil lord gets 1000, and the parliamentary secretary 2000 a-year. The opening paragraph of the Black Book oftJie Admiralty has the following noteworthy instruction as regards the depu ties and officers to be chosen by the lord high admiral : &quot; When one is made admiral!, bee must first ordaine and substi tute for his lieutenants, deputies, and other officers under him, some of the most loyall, wise, and discreete persons in the maritime law and auncient customes of the seas which hee can any where find, to the end that by the helpe of God and their good and just government, the office may be executed to the honour and good of the realme.&quot; Had this precept been always acted on, there would probably have been less occasion than has presented itself for the many reorganisations which the administration of the lord high admiral s administrative office has under gone. As it has been, the necessity for periodical changes has been urgent and unavoidable. From the time of which Macaulay wrote, that the king (James II.) was the only honest man in his dockyards, down to the present date, the need has been incumbent on successive first lords and high admirals to lay the axe to the root of a tree which, in some shape or other, has not ceased to bring forth evil fruit. The soil favoured corruption, and no efficient means were employed to prevent its growth. A root and branch reformation was urgently needed, though it was not applied except in particular instances. Till the great French war of 1793-1815 led to the formation of a navy board of commissioners to superintend the work and management of the dockyards; of a victualling boaul, to see to the provisioning of the fleet; and of sick and hurt commissioners, to look after the sick and wounded the administrative departments of the navy were left to nominees of the lord high admiral or first lord, the said nominees deriving &quot; no small advantage &quot; from the arrangement. Under the departmental boards things certainly improved from what they were in the time of Charles II.; but they fell far short of what was desirable, and, by the vagueness of their administra tive principle, opened a door for irresponsible wrong doing, which in the end made them exceedingly bad instruments of government. These boards continued iill 1832, when Sir James Graham, then first lord of the admiralty, introduced sweeping changes. He abolished the several intangible boards which administered under the shelter of the board of admiralty, and appointed in their stead five principal officers of the navy, who were afterwards included in the admiralty patent. These officc-rs were a surveyor or architect and constructor of the navy ; a storekeeper-general, charged with oversight and purcha.se of the material for dockyards and ships; an accountant- general, charged with the duty of seeing that all wages and cash paid were duly brought to account; a comp troller of victualling and transport services, charged with the maintenance of the victualling establishments of the navy, and of sufficient supplies of provisions and clothing for the fleet, and with the oversight of the transport arrangements for men and stores; and a physician of the navy, afterwards called medical director-general, charged with the oversight of all hospitals and of all sanitary arrangements of the navy. Each of these officers adminis tered the department entrusted to him in every particular, not only in respect of stock, but of replenishment and account of stock. A lord of the admiralty was told off to supervise the permanent head and to represent his department at the board. These alterations were in many respects very beneficial. Altered circumstances required some modification of the original scheme of duties; and the addition of three principal officers the director of works, the director of transports (who, after the Crimean war, relieved the comptroller of victualling of his trans port duties), and the registrar of contracts. In 1860 the office of surveyor of the navy was abolished, and that of controller of the navy, with larger powers over dock yard management, was revived. In 1869, Mr Childers, first lord of the admiralty, made changes which tended